


bring him back to you

by transpeterp



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Irondad, OW, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, may and tony talking about peter, may is valid, post IW, pre endgame, seriously did i mention ow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 04:04:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18380600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transpeterp/pseuds/transpeterp
Summary: Tony goes to talk to May, after getting back to Earth.





	bring him back to you

Tony’s body hurt. 

He sighed to himself, though there was no one around to hear it. He wiped his hands on his shirt, making sure there weren’t any wrinkles or dirt stuck to it, though she wouldn’t really care if there were. Probably wouldn’t even notice. 

He remembered the first time he came to this seemingly random building. He was on edge, jittery, but hid it well as he could, ignoring the stares from the multiple people milling around, talking, sitting, doing everything neighborly in the hallway of the friendly little Queens apartment building. 

He remembered the first time she opened the door, face morphing from a general happy demeanor to one that was confused and recognizing. She beckoned him in, waving to one of her neighbors with a promise to bring over left overs later, looking at Tony like he was another life form. 

He remembered when they sat on the couch, before he was home, talking about her nephew. He’s my life, she had said, voice full of love and support. She cared so deeply about him, so much, and it showed, and showed greatly. He remembered nodding in solidarity when she mentioned the stuff he had had to go through, how much he had had to grow in that past year or so. How the death of his uncle really broke him, and though he didn’t show it or talk about it, he cried about it almost daily. 

He remembered all the times after, too. Once, when he was going over for “a surprise” a few months after the Vulture incident, which really was just the kid getting him there for dinner with them, he helped one of the elderly neighbors with her groceries, since she had so many bags and was struggling to open her door. He grabbed most of the bags, swinging her door open, and helped her put them away. She seemingly didn’t know who Tony was, and blabbed about how he reminded her of her godson, and how he was practically hers since she didn’t have kids of her own. She said that she usually only bought enough for herself, now that her husband passed, but her book club was meeting there that week, and she wanted to make cookies, the kind she had made for her godson’s wedding just a few years before. Tony spent twenty minutes after putting the food away looking through the baby books, and laughing with her to little anecdotes he didn’t understand out of context but she obviously loved to share. After a while, she closed the books and softly told Tony about how she missed him, but he recently got a divorce and with his own baby girl couldn’t pay to come and visit, since he lived so far out of town. When he got to the apartment he was originally trying to get to, the kid smiled knowingly when Tony recounted the story and called him a “secret softy”, to which Tony jokingly punched him and denied. 

He remembered getting invited over more and more. The kid seemed to grow towards him more and more, in both a mentored way and… more than that. Tony joked with him, called him a “pain in my ass”, told him he was an annoying little urchin, but it was said tongue in cheek, with a smile, and a ruffle of his ridiculous hair. 

He remembered the day before everything went wrong, he was back here, in front of this door. He was about to knock when someone from across the hall opened the door, and the kid emerged, happily chatting with Tony’s old lady friend and some guy in his thirties. The guy shook Tony’s hand, saying it was really great to meet him, and gave thanks for Tony helping her out that one time. The lady began to smile, and grabbed Tony’s hand, telling him that she thought he was her lucky charm, because the day after Tony visited, she found a wad of one hundred dollar bills in her pantry, enough for her son to make a few trips back and forth to visit, which he was obviously doing right now. 

Tony sighed again, knocking softly on the door. He looked down the empty hallway with a grimace. No open doors of friendly neighbors, no elderly ladies passing out cookies, no one sitting in the hallway on their computers, talking to neighbors because their heater broke again. The doors were all closed, and locked, trying desperately to stay safe in this pressing time. As if locked doors and avoiding eye contact could save them from whatever was happening. As if locking the door would help to pretend that the people who usually talk loudly in the halls, or play rock music through the walls at two in the morning are still there, just not as loud anymore. Maybe it does help. Ignore something for long enough, and it will go away. 

The door opened with a hard pull, and she was standing there, in jeans and a sweatshirt. She didn’t have any makeup on, and it looked like she hadn’t brushed her hair in a few days. She looked miserable. Which was reasonable. Tony knew he didn’t look much better. 

Tony watched as her face morphed from anticipation and hope to confusion. 

She stayed silent, and Tony didn’t walk inside. He couldn’t bring himself to, just yet. 

“I told him to go back down,” He whispered, voice cracking. He hated how easily he cried now, whenever anyone talked, or tried to talk about, the kid. He tried to force the tears, the pain, down, for her. To be there, for her. Someone needed to be, especially now. She had lost everything in her life except this one boy, and now, thanks to Tony… he’s gone, too. 

She looked at Tony, and Tony saw a flash of something in her eyes. Coming here, he honestly thought that May would punch him, scream at him, yell until her voice was raw, punch him till her hands were bloody. And he honestly thought she should. He was the reason the kid was up there, the reason they lost… 

He deserved it. 

Instead, she sighed, much like Tony had before. The hope in her eyes faded over a few seconds, and Tony was left staring at May Parker, alone. May Parker, probably one of the strongest women Tony had the pleasure of knowing. May Parker, who lost everything. Who lost her brother and sister in law. Then her husband. Now, her own nephew. The kid she considered her own son, the one she helped raise, the one who stood by him no matter what. The one who works her ass off to give him a good life, to help him succeed because that’s just who she is. 

The one who lost everything. 

“You look hungry,” She said, softly. Tony knew what he looked like—skin and bones, frail and grey from no food for so long. From coming back from a different planet where he—where Peter died in his arms. Where he was hours away from death, from dehydration before he was saved. And still, even with just arriving back hours before, he forced his way past Pepper, and Happy, and everyone, insisting he needed to get to May. Rogers, Steve, tried to stop him, but he just told him how he needed to see May, needed to tell her so she doesn’t have to wonder for any longer. Steve just nodded. 

“May I’m so—” 

She held up a hand, and opened the door wider. The apartment looked the same, just… ghostly. It was like you could tell the kid wasn’t there. The little crease on the couch was there where he always collapsed, but you could see how it hadn’t been used in some time. The window shades were open, even though Tony knew May hated the shades being open since she thought someone would look through. Peter loved the shades being open, natural lighting and all that shit. 

“Food first.” 

Tony smiled, empty and sad. It wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t going to bring the kid back. They both knew that, understood that. 

But, crying over the kid with May was better than crying over him alone. 

Toast with some strawberry jam. May set a cup of coffee in front of Tony, but Tony didn’t touch it. He couldn’t stomach that much, he didn’t think. Too hard. Too weak. 

They ate in silence, the only noise being the absence of a fast-talking certain Spider-Kid whom they both were extremely, unfathomably fond of. 

“There was live footage, when you left,” May said softly as she finished a bite. “I could see the parachute, then him sticking to the side of the ship. I knew he would do that. He would’ve never forgave himself if he didn’t stay with you.” 

Tony didn’t know how to respond. 

After a second, when they were both done chewing and both sitting in their own guilt, their own sadness, May reached out, touching Tony’s hand softly. 

“I’m gonna bring him back.” Tony whispered, and May nodded, watery and unsure smile forming on her lips. It was wavy, pained, and almost as close to unreal as you could get. But, hidden inside, under the blue bags and tired eyes, was the smallest glimmer of the hope Tony has seen before, when she first opened the door. 

She rubbed the back of his hand with her thumb, the way she did to calm Peter down after anxiety attacks. Tony wasn’t sure if her doing this was for him or for her, but he liked it anyway. It made something inside him stir, something break, and his heart itself almost leap into the air, ready to start looking for answers, and looking fast. 

“I promise.”


End file.
